{"id":5903,"date":"2018-10-17T18:02:18","date_gmt":"2018-10-17T18:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jamaicahospital.org\/newsletter\/?p=5903"},"modified":"2024-05-09T03:34:00","modified_gmt":"2024-05-09T03:34:00","slug":"dangers-of-infant-walkers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jamaicahospital.org\/newsletter\/dangers-of-infant-walkers\/","title":{"rendered":"DANGERS OF INFANT WALKERS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The American Association of Pediatrics\u2019 (AAP), has recommended a ban on infant walkers as a result of a recent study that revealed\u00a0over \u00a0230,000- children less than 15 months old were treated for infant walker related injuries in U.S. emergency departments from 1990 to 2014.\u00a0The majority of injuries\u00a0were to the head or neck noting that the injuries were\u00a0sustained by falling down stairs in their infant walker.<\/p>\n<p>states that most walker injuries happen while an adult is watching.\u00a0 Even the most attentive parent or caregiver cannot respond quickly enough to prevent a child from falling since a child in a walker can move\u00a0more than\u00a03 feet in 1 second.\u00a0\u00a0That is why walkers are never safe to use, even with an adult close by.<\/p>\n<p>The AAP recommends that instead of infant walkers, parents choose:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Stationary activity centers \u2013 They resemble walkers without wheels.\u00a0 They often\u00a0 have seats that rotate, tip and bounce.<\/li>\n<li>Play yards or playpens \u2013 These can be used as safety zones for children as they learn to sit, crawl or walk.<\/li>\n<li>High chairs \u2013 As your child grows, they can enjoy sitting in a high chair to play with toys on the tray.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Before\u00a01997, there weren&#8217;t any standards for baby walkers in place.\u00a0\u00a0These standards caused manufacturers to make\u00a0the base of a walker\u00a0wider so as to not fit through most door ways and having brakes that stop them at the edge of a step.\u00a0 Although necessary,\u00a0these improvements cannot and have not prevented all injuries from walkers.<\/p>\n<p>Research has shown that walkers do not provide any advantage to accelerating a child\u2019s development.\u00a0 In fact, they may hinder development because they do not teach infants to walk.\u00a0 A better\u00a0practice is to allow your baby the freedom in a safe environment that allows them the opportunity for pulling themselves up, creeping and crawling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"disclaimer\">All content of this newsletter is intended for general information purposes only and is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.  Please consult a medical professional before adopting any of the suggestions on this page.   You must never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking medical treatment based upon any content of this newsletter.<strong>  PROMPTLY CONSULT YOUR PHYSICIAN OR CALL 911 IF YOU BELIEVE YOU HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY.<\/strong> <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The American Association of Pediatrics\u2019 (AAP), has recommended a ban on infant walkers as a result of a recent study that revealed\u00a0over \u00a0230,000- children less than 15 months old were treated for infant walker related injuries in U.S. emergency departments &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/jamaicahospital.org\/newsletter\/dangers-of-infant-walkers\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,24],"tags":[1465,1464],"class_list":["post-5903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","category-parenting","tag-dangersofinfantwalkers","tag-infantwalkers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamaicahospital.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamaicahospital.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamaicahospital.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamaicahospital.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamaicahospital.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5903"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/jamaicahospital.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10999,"href":"https:\/\/jamaicahospital.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5903\/revisions\/10999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamaicahospital.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamaicahospital.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamaicahospital.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}